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2005-04-20 Risa Mulligan finished TEI/XML encoding

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This transcribed document is part of a digital collection, titled True and Candid
Compositions: The Lives and Writings of Antebellum Students in North
Carolina
written by
Lindemann, Erika

Source(s):

Title of collection: James Lawrence Dusenbery Papers (#2561),
Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill

Title of document: Excerpts from the Diary of James L.
Dusenbery, August 14, 1841, February 27 and June 1842

Author: James Lawrence Dusenberry

Description: 7 pages, 7 page images

Note:
Call number 2561 (Southern Historical
Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)

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Document Summary

Dusenbery's diary entry narrates the story of Gooly, who set out to
visit a harlot and was chased back to his dormitory. A second entry reports on
George Washington's birthday celebrations, the dismissal of several students,
and his adventures while drunk.

Excerpts from the Diary of
James L. Dusenbery, August 14, 1841, February 27, 1842, and
June 18421First ChroniclesChap. 1st

Dusenberry, James Lawrence, b. 1821

Page 69

Now it came to pass in the eigth month, even the month August
& in the thirteenth day of the month, that
Gooly2
surnamed the drummer arose & went forth into the wilderness of Sin. And
there were with him in the wilderness, certain mighty men
of valour of the tribe of Freshmen, worshippers of
Baal who had not
the fear of
God before their
eyes. Now there were harlots in those parts, who enticed the men of the land
& were stumbling-blocks before
Gooly & the men who were with him. For they were moved
in their hearts to go in unto them; so they arose & went forth by night,
bearing in their hands, gifts of raiment & precious metal. But the intents
of their hearts were evil before the
Lord continually & it was forbidden that this great
wickedness should come to pass. For behold as they went the very trees cried
out at their approach & put forth their arms to forbid their passage. But
Gooly & the men of might who were with him, were
hardened in their hearts & pressed forward to give battle to the giants of
the forest. And lo! one of the giants pressed sore upon
Gooly & smote him between the eyes & he fell upon
his face to the earth. Then
Gooly arose & fled to his own house & the men,
when they saw what was done, turned & fled after him. Thus was
Gooly & the worshippers of of
Baal
discomfited before the giants of the wilderness of Sin.

Done on Saturday the 14th of August 1841.

Page 116

Sunday 27th [February 1842]. Tuesday was the 22nd—the birthday of
Washington. The day was celebrated by the delivery of a
speech by
Morrisey3.
The procession formed in front of the
S. B. [South
Building] & marched round by
Caldwell's monument, to the chapel.
Mears was Marshall of the day. The amount of liquor drank
by the students was tremendous. More than 2/3ds of college were intoxicated.
Pink & I went over to the
[Old] East
& were gloriously tight before breakfast. We kept the thing hot throughout the day. Nutall had an excellent
dinner.
Parson Green dined with us for the purpose, of
preserving order & preventing us from drinking too much wine. A member of
the Faculty dined at each of the boarding houses for the same purpose.4 In
the evening
Mike
[Elisha Mitchell] was passing through the "Campus" & some
drunken fellow cursed him from
Mc'Nairy's window. He came up & found the room full of
drunken students, while the sugar was scattered about & the floor was
drenched with the brandy which had been spilled. He sat down & gave them a
long talk & went away, after giving them to understand that he would report
none of them. On Thursday, however,
Dick,
McNairyWilliamson, were called before the Faculty, at
Mike's instigation, & dismissed for three weeks. The
two Polk's were dismissed finally.5MoralJessie Irvine was sent off the next day, for
refusing to go up to Mr
[Manuel]
Fetter's table, to recite.6 On
Friday
Yance &
Gooly set out on foot, for
Moring's—8 miles from the
Hill
on the
Raleigh
road, with the intention of spending their three weeks there. About a
dozen of us

Page 117

accompanied them as far on their way
as "Piny
Prospect". When they reached
Moring's, the looks of the place were not agreeable &
an opportunity offering itself, they returned to the
Hill
on the same day. At night
Yance rode out to
Johnson's 4 miles on the
Hillsboro
road & procured a very convenient place, for a student to rusticate.7
They moved out on yesterday. I went out with their baggage & helped them to
fix up their room. I was so well pleased with the place that I almost wished
that I were also dismissed. Their room is upon the stage road, but they eat at
Johnson's, whose house is 3/4ths of a mile distant. They
have a gun with them & plenty of books,—old
Charley has 3 very comely daughters & in hunting,
fishing reading & keeping company with the ladies, no doubt their 3 weeks
will pass away very pleasantly.
Dick has gone home. Our 3d passage
looks gloomy & desolate since they are all gone. On the night of the 22nd while I was yet high in the wind, I started out to the Depót8 to
see
Miss Redness. On the way I met
Clinch, who had been to the
Borough
[Hillsborough]. He was so tight that he could hardly sit in his sulkey.
He pulled out a small black juuk & I took a few swallows & went on my
way rejoicing. I staid at the Depót all night. Last night I went again &
staid until after 3. o.c. this morning. A few nights ago I wrote a Temperance
pledge for myself—signed it & nailed it up against the wall. In it I
pledge myself to drink no liquor before Senior reports are read out.
Yance &
Alfred9
have also signed it.
Laura wrote to me this week.

Feb. 27th
1842.

Page 131

On Saturday the 28th of May [1842] I set out on my return to the
Hill
to attend commencement & receive my diploma.
Laura accompanied me, &
Fayette also, as far as
Greensboro, where he is at school. We
passed the night in
G.
[Greensboro] at
Mrs Moring's, & after breakfast the next morning Jacob
drove us down to
Mr
Holt's & we spent the remainder of the Sabbath & the night
following with Miss
Eliza Holt. There we
found the
Dr. &
Miss
Elizabeth, at
Edwin
Holt's. About 10 on Monday morning we all set out again, the
Dr. having prevailed upon his brother
Edwin to go with him to the
Hill.
We travelled in company, about 6 miles, to
Dr
Mike Holt's, where we found
Dr
Saml Holt who had also agreed to go to the
Hill.
There
Laura & I seperated from the rest, & went on
direct to the
Hill,
while the
Dr & his company went on by
Hillsboro, where he had some business to transact.
Laura was invited to
Prof.
[James] Phillip's, but she remained there for only a short time on
account of the severe sickness of Miss
Jane
Wilson,10
who was staying there.
Dr
[Elisha] Mitchell invited her to his house & there she remained
during our stay at
C.
Hill. On Monday evening
Prof.
[William] Green, who had been solicited by our class to deliver to us a
parting sermon, preached to us in the new chapel, from this text,=="Remember this & prove yourselves
men".==. On Tuesday morning our class was examined on Law by
Gov.
Swain in the presence of
Charles
Manly,
D.
M. Barringer & several other highly intelligent gentlemen. In the
evening
Dr
Mitchell who wished to have some amusement, called together the Seniors
& proposed that some of the class should take the

Page 132

"Nitrous Oxide" or exilarating gas. It was administered in
the grove just behind the
S. B. [South
Building] & students & visitors were all, there assembled. Those
of my class who took it were
Ashe,
Morrisey,
Mullins,
Quince &
Summerell. All showed a disposition to fight
butMorrisey &
Summerell—the former did nothing but walk about
& look as if he were searching for a stump upon which to mount to make a
speech, & the other jumped up, smacked his feet together & said he felt
glorious.
Ashe was the
most pugnacious man of them all—he first jumped upon
J. P.
Irwin & tore the skirt of his coat nearly off & he then threw
himself upon me so suddenly that I could not get out of his way & was
obliged to fight in self-defense. Neither of us were hurt for
Dick's gas soon "–frez–z out" & then of
course the scuffle ended. That night the Fresh competitors declaimed. Also
about 4 that evening
Miss
Wilson died.
Dr
Holt reached the
Hill
also on that eve. Wednesday morning was set apart for the delivery of
Mr
Mason's address but as that gentleman, on account of urgent business,
could not be present
Dr
Mitchell devoted the time to a lecture & the exhibition of some
experiments, on Electro Magnetism. The evening of that day was devoted to the
interment of the body of
Miss
Wilson. It was brought to the chapel where a long & very solemn
& impressive sermon was preached by
Prof.
Phillips. Thence it was carried to the college burial place & there
interred. A numerous

Page 133

concourse of people
attended the body to the grave—the students behaved with becoming
solemnity & both they & the strangers who were present appeared to
sympathise deeply with the bereaved father & sister by11
the solemn & respectful manner in which they performed the last sad rites
to the body of their beloved relative.

On Wed. night the Soph. compets.
declaimed—
Fauks was one of them. On Thursday morning the speakers
were
Bryan, who spoke the Latin,
Summerell,
BarringerHaigh &
Lewis—in the evening
Bell spoke first, a French speech—"Elogé
Louis Phillipe." After him
Mullins &
Marten12
& then the degrees were conferred. A very neat
bible was given
to each member of the class together with his diploma.13R. Campbell,
Dusenbery &
Green were called up & received their diploma's together. The
reports were read out before degrees were conferred—
Alfred Foster &
Bellanfant received 3d in the Soph.
Morrisey then delivered his valedictory &
Mr
Green closed the exercises with prayer after a short speech14
from
Gov.
Morehead . At night the ball came off. Very few young ladies attended. I
went over & danced the first cotillion with
Augusta Rounsaville who also was at Commencement. I paid
very little attention to the ladies. Once I walked with
Elizabeth
Holt & once with
Miss Jackson from
Pittsboro. On Friday morning I left the
Hill

Endnotes:

1. James Lawrence Dusenbery Papers, SHC. The diary is bound in
cardboard with leather tips and spine. It measures 8 by 9 1/4 inches and is
inscribed on the front flyleaf "James Lawrence Dusenbery/
Lexington/
N.
Carolina/
Liber Carminum et Fragmentorum." A second
hand has numbered the first 141 pages of the volume in pencil. The first fifty
pages contain poems copied from other sources, "Extracts from
Byron," and excerpts from
Scott's"Lady
of the Lake." Page 57 begins
Dusenbery's"Records/Of My Senior Year at the
University of NCa," which he claims
is "a weekly record of all the leading events of
myour
life during our Senior year in College, together with our thoughts &
reflections at the time." The earliest entry is dated July 13, 1841; the
latest, June 7, 1842. The remainder of the diary gives a brief account of
Dusenbery's career in "after life" and copies
seven letters to him from "Mary
S.," whom
Dusenbery evidently intended to marry until, for some
reason, she was compelled to break off the engagement.

4. The faculty agreed in a meeting on February 18, 1842,
"That ProfsGreen &
Mitchell should see the boarding housekeepers and urge
upon them the necessity of caution and moderation in regard to the kind and
amount of intoxicating liquors furnished their boarders on the 22nd Inst." (Faculty Minutes 4:41, UA).

5. Faculty minutes for February 24, 1842, confirm that
Allen
Jones Polk and
Thomas G.
Polk, both from
Tennessee,
were dismissed (4:43, UA). Though
Allen
Polk subsequently was readmitted, he was involved in additional
misbehavior—blowing a trumpet during a "spree" and answering
for absent individuals at prayers—and was dismissed again on September
20, 1842 (4:78, UA). Neither student received a degree. Both were members of
the
Dialectic
Society and became planters.

6. On February 25, 1842, "Jesse
Irvine of the Sophomore Class was called before the Faculty, for
persisting in his refusal to comply with
Prof
Fetter's requisition that he should come to the table whenever he called
upon him to recite, and this too after an interview with
Prof Hooper (See proceedings Feb. 18) and one with the
President, the object of which was to induce his
compliance with the regulation, the said
Irvine
was therefore unanimously dismissed" (Faculty Minutes 4:44, UA).

7.
Charles
Johnson operated a mill at
New Hope
Creek, east of present-day
Blackwood
Station and west of
Patterson's mill.

8. Possibly the stagecoach depot on the road to
Hillsborough, NC.
Dusenbery and some of his classmates frequently visited
the Depôt, despite regulations that confined students to their rooms after
curfew, prohibited their drinking, and legislated against keeping company
"with persons of publicly bad character" (Acts 16).

10. When
Jane
contracted cholera on a trip she was making with her father from
Raleigh to
Greensboro, they stopped in
Chapel
Hill.
Rev.
Wilson's June 1, 1842, letter to his wife in
Greensboro informs her of their daughter's death:

What reason we have at all times to submit to the will of a Father
of infinite wisdom. It has pleased him to take to himself our dear
Jane.
She departed this life yesterday the 31st May at fifteen minutes past 4 O'c P.
M. in peace, composure, self-possession, literally fast asleep in the arms of
Jesus. For
several hours before her death she was perfectly sensible of the approach of
the
King of
terrors, but he had no terrors for her, she was trusting in the Lord
Jehovah as
her everlasting help &
Saviour. [. .
.] I thought it best to inter her here in the public burying ground in a
pleasant place by the side of a daughter of
Rev
Dr Chapman & a Mr[Charles A.] Brewster a pious man from
N. York. Her
funeral sermon was preached by
Bro.
Phillips in the
College
Chapel to an immense congregation who gave breathless attention. I shall
ask
Bro.
Ph. to write out a copy for you.
Alice
has been enabled by the blessing of
God to sustain
the shock beyond expectation—There were a great many of our old friends
present at the funeral. The body was carried to the graveyard by
Bro.
Ps two sons
Mr
Strazzi, & several of the old students of the
Cald. Institute. Every one seemed to sympathise with us
& oh
Bro.
P. has prayd so fervently that you and all the family might be sustained
in this trial of our faith. (Heartt and Wilson Papers, SHC)

15. The rest of the entry describes
Dusenbery's trip home. He spent the first night at
Edwin
Holt's, traveled on Saturday to
Brummel's, near present-day
High Point,
NC, and arrived at his home in
Lexington,
NC, in time for breakfast on Sunday morning.